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GMOs have not been adequately tested, and long-term health studies have not been conducted.
Myth: According to organizations like carightoknow.org, the home page for California's Proposition 37, GMO foods have not been proven safe and have not been adequately tested for safety. Greenpeace's website is quoted as saying "GMOs should not be released into the environment since there is not an adequate scientific understanding of their impact on the environment and human health." Facts: GMOs have been extensively tested over several decades in over 450 independent and governmental safety assessments and peer-reviewed papers. The independent, non-profit, organization Biofortified.org has spent the last few years creating GENERA (GENetic Engineering Risk Atlas) which pools together all peer-reviewed research on the relative risks of GE crops. Here is a list of all 450+ peer reviewed papers they have pooled to date, as well as a shorter list of papers produced independently from large seed producers. Professor Huw Jones in a Q&A on the website Sense About Science about the safety and regulation of GM crops describes the regulation of GM in Europe: "In Europe, an applicant would apply to the EU under regulation EC 1829/2003 for approval to market the GM variety for food and feed uses. The EC requires a risk assessment to be carried out by the GMO panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The assessment includes a comprehensive evaluation of the DNA insertion at a molecular level, toxicity, allergenicity and an environmental risk assessment. The risk assessment is comparative and aims to judge whether the new GM variety is, or is not, as safe as its conventional counterpart (usually the variety that was transformed with the new gene). The outcome of the risk assessment is published in the EFSA journal and authority to import the new variety for consumption in food and feed may be granted by the EU (sometimes after a protracted period of political discussion!). There are more than forty GM crop types that currently have EU approval for importation into Europe for food and feed uses." '' In the journal of ''Food and Chemical Toxicology a study called Assessment of the health impact of GM plant diets in long-term and multigenerational animal feeding trials: A literature review evaluated 12 long term studies and 12 multigenerational studies on animals. The review found that not only were the crops nutritionally equivalent to conventional crops but can be safely used in food and feed. The disconnect between the public's perception of inadequate testing, regulation, or protocols on GMOs has led to the World Health Organization doing a Q&A to provide information on how GMOs are assessed for safety around the world. Here is a quick description on how GM crops are tested for safety: The safety assessment of GM foods generally investigates: (a) direct health effects (toxicity), (b) tendencies to provoke allergic reaction (allergenicity); © specific components thought to have nutritional or toxic properties; (d) the stability of the inserted gene; (e) nutritional effects associated with genetic modification; and (f) any unintended effects which could result from the gene insertion. The safety testing, regulation, and discussion of the impacts of GMO have been going on since the dawn of the technology and will continue to go on as new and novel crops are created, tested, and used.